


Recall

by varooooom



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Spoilers, ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-23
Updated: 2014-04-23
Packaged: 2018-01-20 12:59:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1511438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/varooooom/pseuds/varooooom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky watches the Avengers get sloppy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Recall

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by literally none of the actors remembering what S.H.I.E.L.D. stands for, fucking cuties. This is set a few years after CA:TWS.

It becomes a game one night, when they're pretending any of them can actually get drunk ( besides Tony, Pepper, Sam, and Clint, who definitely _are_ and enjoy every second of it ). They're in varying states of disarray, all rumpled clothes and empty bottles and slouched piles on top of each other across Stark's sprawling living room. It's been several hours of shooting the shit and making asses of themselves, so most of their incoherency can probably be chalked up to exhaustion from laughing too much for too long. The rest is on them and how utterly ridiculous they always are around each other.

It's not a bad way to be. Bucky curls up in his own recliner, nursing a glass of whiskey with amusement etched into his smirk as he watches them struggle.

They can at least agree on ' _Strategic_ ', because that's the easy one even though Tony insists for twenty minutes that it had to be ' _Stark_ ', because it's their headquarters and his building and _obviously_ America's outdated intelligence department would be named after him. Natasha reminds him that they didn't even really want him onboard and Pepper recounts every word of his file for the rest of them to collapse into more fits of laughter, delaying the game long enough for another round of drinks. 

Sam says the next word was undoubtedly ' _Homeboy_ ', and Clint rolls with it like a fucking landslide, loudly proclaiming "Strategic Homeboy Instigating Everybody's Love-Life Division!" They try to high five and miss, whooping even harder for it. Their - what does Stark call it? Bromance? - has been adorable to watch develop, even if they still argue over who's the bird for brains. The puns are ceaseless and terrible, and Bucky's pretty sure Natasha has been keeping a mental tally to exact her frustrations when they train together. She trounces them and gloats; they walk around in shame for a few hours of blissful pun-silence. If only the world knew what their world-saving superheroes got up to off the clock.

Literally no one is surprised when Steve's the one that shouts ' _Homeland_ ' after Sam and Clint's giggling stops. There's a collective groan and someone misses terribly when they throw popcorn at him. He curls around his beer defensively and frowns, "What? It's an important word! _What_?" Tony asks if he has the flag on his underwear too, which prompts a wrestling match to try and check that Sam and Clint jump in on. Natasha and Pepper start calling out a betting pool while Bruce goes around stealing abandoned drinks for the collection he started a couple hours ago, when it became obvious that any semblance of adult-like behavior was out of the question for the night. He offers one to Bucky with a secretive smile, and Bucky takes Steve's bottle as confirmation for the otherwise rhetorical question that no one else sees answered.

Once the furniture is ( relatively ) righted again and new drinks are poured, they get stuck on the I. It's the quietest moment that's passed since they all assembled at the behest of Steve's over-enthusiastic mass text. He gets into chipper moods like these whenever something small makes his day; today's was the most minuscule, asinine thing ever, and Bucky internally swears never to help little old ladies carry groceries up the stairs ever again. The others don't know, because it's easy enough to go with the assumption that Steve is and always will be the glue that keeps their highly dysfunctional family together. Bucky watches them as even now, drunk on liquor and life, they gravitate towards him like cosmic bodies around the Sun. It only makes sense; he's been bringing out the best in people since he was seven years old and stronger by miles than the kids that pushed him in the sandbox.

Aw, Hell. He can't even pretend he's anywhere near drunk and he's starting to get all reflective in the silence. Before he can give them the next word if only to bring back the distraction, Pepper slips from where she'd started leaning on Tony's shoulder and startles with a sleepy "Investigative?" The others look thoughtful for a second, because it doesn't quite sound right ( because it isn't, not that he's correcting them ), but they eventually concede with Steve giving a lackluster "Yeah, that makes sense."

Bruce offers ' _Entertainment_ ' for the next, to which everyone toasts with the grim amusement of people that've been through too much shit to take things personally anymore. They go off on tangents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s finest moments, each story an attempt at dropping the most dirt on their various exploits over the years. Natasha and Clint win, of course, but mostly by virtue of refusing to speak about the things they did before the Avengers Initiative was even a concept in Nick Fury's machinations. Bucky listens silently, watching them reminisce in raised eyebrows and subtle shrugs, wondering. They move past it after Sam chimes in to remind them that he never actually worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. and only ever stepped foot inside the building when he was tearing the place up, "But I'm pretty sure the E was for Enforcement." Steve snaps and points his finger in the way all proud mothers must of their ducklings as Clint thanks them for his unemployment benefits.

Bucky stays quiet for that one, too. It might've been a few years ago, but it's his first memory that isn't misplaced in another timeline, and it's not a terribly fond one. He meets Steve's eyes just long enough to give him a placating smile and a silent toast with the Captain's own drink, then knocks it back in full. Natasha is there with a new one before he even gets a chance to set the empty down; he touches her wrist in reassurance and thanks.

Tony starts listing off the most absurd L words he can think of, starting with ' _Logarithmic_ ' and working his way up to ' _Longiloquence_ ' because "Everything about that place was long-winded, did you read those memos Fury sent out? I didn't, but I'm willing to bet they were long-winded." Pepper decides she's awake enough to swat him over the head at the same time that Natasha elbows Clint for making an appreciative nod. Bruce scoots a safe distance away from them all and Bucky hides his grin behind another drink, waiting. Steve is too thoughtful, contemplating things far too seriously for a drunken game of ' _who remembers the name of our former evil overlords_?' ( Stark Industries patent pending ), but whatever he's dwelling on is neatly sorted away when he nods his head decisively and says "Logistics. Definitely Logistics."

"Right, yeah, and then Department," Clint finishes. They dwell on that one for a second before going with it because it seems the most obvious answer, but they still sit in a discontent silence afterwards. Bucky's noticed that they seem to have this habit of getting really excited about doing something and then get stuck in an adrenaline drop once they've actually done it. The restlessness of inactive soldiers isn't uncommon, so it doesn't surprise him when Sam's the one that says "All right, now who remembers the whole thing?"

"Stark -" Tony starts, drowned out by everyone else simultaneously saying " _Strategic_."

"Homeboy," Clint fist bumps Sam into an explosion.

"Homeland," Bruce supplies, lifting a toast to Steve.

"Investigative Enforcement," Pepper pauses, frowning, "No, that doesn't sound right."

"Investigation and Enforcement?"

"Didn't we just go over this? I feel like we've spent the last four hours going over this, how are we still getting it wrong?"

"This was your idea, Stark."

"I don't see you remembering it all either, Captain Spandex -"

"Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division," Bucky interrupts cleanly, the first time he's spoken at all since they started this stupid game. Everyone turns to him in surprise and confusion; he just shrugs. "Technically, I worked for them longer than all of you combined."

There's a stunned, awkward silence that follows, during which he contents himself with smiling nonchalantly and sipping his drink. They're still trying to figure out how to handle his sense of humor: Bruce, for his part, looks like he's trying not to laugh out of respect for the others, and Sam keeps shaking his head like he's at fault for telling Bucky it's okay to embrace his past.

Clint is the one that speaks up first. "Is anyone else feeling a little ashamed that the hundred year old amnesiac with borderline DID and homicidal tendencies has a better memory than us?"

Bucky bursts out laughing and everyone else unwittingly follows suit, Natasha giving Clint another elbow in the side for his efforts. Steve walks over to shove his head down and call him a jerk, to which Bucky responds by pulling him over the armrest into his lap and calling him a punk. It's all childish traumatising entertainment for hours on end, the way it always will be with the Avengers. 

But it's not a bad way to be. Bucky's calling this one a victory.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, Bucky told Bruce that Steve wears American flag underwear. They were a birthday present from Sam and Steve doesn't like to admit that he _loves_ them.


End file.
